The Meaning of Meaning

work by Ogden and Richards

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June 30, 2026

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The work "The Meaning of Meaning" by C.K. Ogden and I.A. Richards explores the complexities of linguistic meaning, distinguishing it from natural or conventional meanings. They proposed a "semantic triangle" to illustrate the relationship between a symbol (word), its thought (idea), and its referent (the actual thing).1

This theory suggests that meaning is not inherent in words themselves but arises from the connection between a word and the idea it represents in our minds. However, this ideational approach faces challenges, as it can lead to misunderstandings if individuals associate different ideas with the same word. The study of signs and their use, known as semiotics, also delves into how meaning is constructed through symbols, icons, and indices. Philosophers like Gottlob Frege further developed theories of meaning, proposing that an expression has both a referent and a "sense," which is the way it refers to that thing.234

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Ambiguity
Ogden and Richards’s The Meaning of Meaning (1923), a work of enormous importance in its time. Only a generation later, however, their ideas were somewhat at a discount. However, ambiguity remained a principal shaping tool for the writer and a primary focus in literary criticism.
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Ogden and Richards’s The Meaning of Meaning (1923), a work of enormous importance in its time. Only a generation later, however, their ideas were somewhat at a discount. However, ambiguity remained a principal shaping tool for the writer and a primary focus in literary criticism.
Read More

C.K. Ogden
…on the theory of language, The Meaning of Meaning (1923). In this work he attempted to draw insights from modern psychological research to bear on the linguistic problem of word meaning. The chapter on definition contained the germ of Basic (short for British, American, scientific, international, commercial) English, which took…
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…on the theory of language, The Meaning of Meaning (1923). In this work he attempted to draw insights from modern psychological research to bear on the linguistic problem of word meaning. The chapter on definition contained the germ of Basic (short for British, American, scientific, international, commercial) English, which took…
Read More